Layne Heiny wrote a commentary about UMPCs, their publicity, and their prices. This is not the only comment saying those.
First and most importantly, everyone wants UMPC prices to go down. Hey, i want to buy a UMPC for 10$ too! But be rational! You are buying a “real” PC here,not a PDA. The wanted price range “400-500$” is understandable to PDAs, not PCs.Tablet PCs are more expensive than notebooks, and they have to be more expensive due to digitizers, different production (especially for slates) and software. (did you think ink-programs are written in one hour and they are costless?) And UMPCs are Tablet PCs with their processors, RAM, software and everything. Even VIA aren’t giving away processors for free. They cost millions to manufacture. UMPCs don’t use 64 MB (slow) RAM like PDAs, they use 256 MB and more. And even DDR2. And UMPCs are better than Tablet PCs with their smaller form factor. And you expect prices lower than high class cell phones?
But let me say in all the negative frey that TabletKiosk is winning me over because they kept the price under $1,000.
Yes, Tabletkiosk is winning me too, but they can’t make miracles too. They are using C7-m processors and Via chipsets, 256 MB RAM and 30 GB HDD to keep under 1000$. (512 MB RAM and 40 GB HDD 999$-not very far from 1000$ :D) And i used XP with 256 MB RAM, not very pleasant, most people would choose 512 MB or 1 GB versions.
Rule Number One: Sell three configurations.
Another nice thought. I thought the same thing some time ago too.(so now you see why i said nice thought 
) But it is not always possible, and especially in a market like UMPCs.
In contrast, I am of the opinion that sales for TabletKiosk eo are going quite well (for selling more than one configurations)
Tabletkiosk is selling three configurations (another 1 GB model with 1164$ price tag is said to be coming), but really? 256 MB RAM model is not very charming as i said above. And two models with only RAM and 160$ price is not very “selliing different configurations” to me. But, i am not saying Tabletkiosk is doing bad here. I am trying to tell that selling different configurations is not very easy. Samsung could have been selling one Pentium M 1-1.1 GHz model, but the difference between Celeron M and Pentium M near 1 GHz is not very much and it would only make a different model with another (and a bit higher) price tag. Look at OQO etc. It is not always feasible.
Did you notice TabletKiosk got their product to reviewers quickly? TabletPC2 had a review very fast.
Wasn’t it a Preview? And it is the only preview yet. We contacted to them too and we are waiting.
Rule Number Three: Participate with the community.
No,no,nothing is wrong with this, of course it is true. (coming ! )
Lets look at this now :
For example, How dare Microsoft set up their own website on UMPC and claim to be working with the community.
Now, look read above again. (Hey! You, sleeping beauty! I said read above.) Lets continue.
However, the site turned into forums and blogs. Boo. You went too far. This last move was one of bullying and not friendly and open. Take part in the community and not try to control the community.
This one is beyond my imagination. I think “Controlling the community” would be warning stupid editors like me for news and comments, searching all forums and contacting administors to delete all the comments against anything, maybe even hacking UMPC Buzz for writing those. They open a forum and a blog for UMPCs and they turn into monsters. They don’t do these and they would be ignoring the community. Wow, it should be very hard for their PR division.
